Cantor rejects Obama's 'lecturing'

House Minority Whip Eric Cantor says he hopes President Barack Obama will avoid during a visit Friday to a House GOP retreat in Baltimore “the kind of rhetoric and lecturing that occurred in the State of the Union.”

Obama told Republicans in his address Wednesday night that “saying ‘no’ to everything may be good short-term politics, but it’s not leadership” and that they share in “the responsibility to govern.” Stepping up his own efforts at bipartisanship, he said he plans “monthly meetings with both Democratic and Republican leadership.”

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Cantor, the No. 2 House GOP leader, said he “appreciated his offer” but said Obama has made calls for bipartisanship before.

“There are words and promises, and there is delivery,” Cantor, 46, said at his Capitol Hill office in an interview for a POLITICO video series, “Inside Obama’s Washington.” “There’s not been much action put behind those words over the last year. I’m hoping when he comes to our retreat that we’ll hear a different President Obama and, frankly, a willingness to say, ‘OK, I understand my agenda may not be what the majority of this country wants. Let’s work together.’”

Republicans unanimously opposed last year’s stimulus bill, which Cantor argues has “failed miserably” at job creation. Now, he says House Republicans will oppose the new jobs bill Obama endorsed in Wednesday night’s speech.

“We’ve already seen his method and the majority’s method of trying to generate jobs — that’s the stimulus bill that was passed last year,” Cantor said. “Now we know the total is exceeding $800 billion. Now the proposal is yet again another $150 billion before we start to think about a freeze. But $150 billion spent on more government programs? ... Come on. There is a government that can help, and the government can also hurt.”

Cantor claimed that the administration “has demonstrated an arrogance in ignoring public opinion.”

“I felt like he was admonishing Congress and certainly lecturing Republicans,” Cantor said, “accusing us of being an obstructionist party, when what it is we’re about is trying to focus on the issue, which is control the spending and let’s go about creating an environment for jobs. ... [The] president says he’s going to be open to discussion. We’re all about going and participating with him.”

Cantor said congressional Democratic leaders are no better. “When they came back to Washington [after the Massachusetts Senate loss], there were a lot of cries publicly, ‘Oh, we need to work together,’” he said. “Not one call from any Democratic leader. Not one visit by any Democratic leader in the House to any of the Republican leaders.”

Continuing his critique of the speech, Cantor said: “There was a lot of blame game last night, and I’m the first one to say there’s a lot of blame to go around. We can all accept some of it. But, as we’ve seen over the last several months, the people in this country are very dissatisfied with the direction that this administration is taking this country. And what we heard last night ... was: ‘We’re going to continue with this agenda. In fact, we’re going to double-down on health care.’ ”

Cantor said that while hosting Obama, Republicans will “remind him again: We’re not voting ‘no’ for political expediency — we’ve got our principles, and we’re going to stand up and defend those.”